School Carnival 2008

The boys had a blast at the school carnival. Traci had to work, which was unfortunate, but thats life! Anyway, the boys had a lot of fun playing the games and eating pizza. It was a successful event! ...Especially because I was winging it alone. Traci sure makes it look easy!

Evolution of our House/ Project #2 and #3

Somehow, I got wrapped up into doing another big project. Its really all my fault. I wanted the stupid front entry way torn down, and I have been complaining about it since we bought the house. So back to painting the house, project #2. We purchased primer this week and got everything ready for painting on Saturday. Friday, I got off of work earlier than anticipated, so I came home and tore down the entry way. My neighbor (thanks Eric!) helped me replace my beams for my porch overhang and around 2:00 p.m. I started to paint. The primer is a bit lighter than our actual color, but it will work for now unitl we can save up for the actual paint. We love that it is a different color from our ugly "dirt" brown that we had, but we both feel that the porch has made a massive improvement in the appearance of our house. Traci helped out with everything on Saturday. From feeding the children and me, to scraping and painting. She was a blur. I would be painting, and ask for a window to be taped up, and she would have it done before I could even realize. She was amazing. Thanks Traci!

Here are a few photos that we dug up from before we purchased the house until now.

This is a picture of our house the week before we bought it and moved in! Notice the nice 2 tone paint job he had going on... Was he trying to set a trend?

This one was from our first or second year, before we had all of our cement ripped out and replaced... We had to paint that entry way- we hated it, but at least it was uniform in color.

Friday before demolition...

Saturday, painting and setting the beams

Project #2 2008- Painting the House

We decided that our house couldn't wait another year to be painted. Its in pretty bad shape, as you can see by the photo. Our neighbor friends let us borrow their power washer on Saturday and I did the honors. It was a heck of a lot easier than scraping it by hand, and it only took me about 3 or 4 hours. Now the painting part. Arg. I really hate painting- with a passion. This time around, we hope to spray the house instead of rolling it. I'll post more updates as soon as we make some more progress.

1-2- Tie your Shoes

Cameron learned how to tie his shoes this morning. I must admit, that boy of mine picks things up really quick... that is, when he puts his mind to it. He learned to tie his shoes in a matter of minutes, probably out of frustration. I think he was tired of having us do it for him. He was the same way when he learned to ride his bike when he was 3. He wanted to be a big boy so bad- He learned how to ride without training wheels on his first try, and hasn't looked back since! We are sure proud of him- way to go Cameron!

Back to School (last week!)

I havent been very on top of posting- so here are a few more late photos. The main reason I have posted these today, is that I have been having a blast with these new Actions for Photoshop! I know, I agree that the ones I used are a little bit much, but they are so much fun! Anyway, I will hopefully keep a little more on top of posting... (unlike other people that I know...... hmm-hmmm- CAMI!)

Long overdue Birthday Post

Happy Birthday Cameron! I know its late- but its the thought that counts, right? Right?

Equestrian: Worst Olympic Sport. EVER.

Before I discuss my opinion of this terrible sport-
let me first say to all the people who are going to bash me and call me a jerk- I love horses! So don't think that I am an animal hater! Let me get started...
So I turned on the T.V. a few days ago when I got home from work to watch some Olympics. I have found myself watching more than I ever had in my life this time around. I can't account a reason to this, other than I find it fun to see us winning more gold medals. Call it patriotism, call it arrogance, it might just be a little of both. Anyway, I didn't find the usual channel that I have been watching the Olympics. I ended up finding another channel, that said it was "showing" the Olympics.
Little did I know, that it wasn't really the "Olympics," but a dog show. O.k.- more like a horse show. It was the Olympics, but it was a bunch of people trotting their horses around an arena of sorts. That was it!
My point is this: The Olympics are about personal strengths, running... swimming.... gymnasts... even badminton is considered a personal strength. I recall, when I was a wee little tike, in 4-H we would "train" and raise animals to show them at the County Fair. This is where we would see the Horse show. How in the world did this get to be an Olympic sport?! If I train my dog to roll over, do I get to go to the Olympics and show my dog rolling over and shaking hands? NO. That would be a dog show. So why do we have to sit through someone riding a poor horse and say that is a physical atribute? The horse does all the work, and a rider collects the glory. That's a weak excuse for a sport, if you ever ask me. I'm up for banning it. What a joke and a waste of my time. I hope I never have to see another dog show- errrrr- horse show in the Olympics again.

Tired Yet?

I hope I am not tiring anyone with our vacation photos! I think we just had such a good time- there are tons of photos that haven't been posted yet! I'll stop here- I won't bore anyone else with our photos... I wanted to just get these last few from the tide pools and river trip. I think that there were just over 410 photos taken during the entire trip! My sister in law Amber, also posted a few photos that I took- so If you want some more abuse- she has posted a few good ones too!!!

This was our first crab that we found- it just happened to be this small!

This was our first hermit crab that we found

This star fish was busy eating something that resembled a Japanese Abalone...

This was the only orange starfish that I found- I found about 11 others, but all purple

This is our friends son Tony- I think its Zac's long lost twin!

Zachary Carter Photo Shoot- Take 1

Traci wanted to take a few photos of Zac before we had our foot long grass cut. Zac immediately started to make poses, like he was in his own little photo shoot. That kid kills me.

Prison Issue

I heard that the Prison was cutting back on the throw away spork packets that are handed out with meals. It included the usual-salt, pepper, folded paper napkin, and your all and inclusive spork. I think that everyone should have a spork. They are they best invention, and why does it only exist in institutions? The prison quit ordering the packets, and everyone was issued a florescent orange spork. I thought it was only the inmates that got these.
Well, I ended up doing an overtime shift last night and this morning, I wanted some cereal. No sporks! I guess I just wasn't issued "my" spork yet! I then had a great thought- maybe I should get one for each of my boys, and then they wouldn't have to use any more silverware!
I'm a genius.
Vote for me.
I'll make sure each and every one of you, gets your own, personal, SPORK.